2023-06-20 12:43:51
According to a study in the journal Nature Medicine, alcohol increases the risk of 61 diseases. Among them are many that have not previously been associated with alcohol.
Among 207 diseases studied, alcohol was associated with a higher risk of 61 diseases in Chinese men. Including 28 that have already been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as alcohol-related, such as liver cirrhosis, stroke and gastrointestinal cancer. But 33 other diseases were found for which an association with alcohol consumption was previously unclear, including gout, cataracts, some bone fractures and stomach ulcers. Certain drinking habits, such as daily alcohol consumption, binge drinking, or drinking outside of meals, increase the risk of certain diseases, particularly cirrhosis of the liver. Men who drank alcohol regularly had a significantly higher risk of disease and were hospitalized more often than occasional drinkers.
A dose-dependent effect was demonstrated on the basis of genetic analyses: For every four drinks a day, the risk of known alcohol-related diseases increased by 14 percent and by 6 percent for those who had not previously been classified as alcohol-related. It even doubled for cirrhosis and gout. A protective effect against coronary heart disease with moderate consumption (one to two drinks per day) was not observed.
Since less than 2 percent of women in China drink alcohol regularly, they served as a control group in the genetic analyses. It was relatively clearly demonstrated that the increased risk of disease in men was caused by alcohol and not by other mechanisms.
Pek Kei Im of the University of Oxford said: “Alcohol consumption is linked to disease in a much larger way than previously thought. Our results show that these associations are likely causal in nature.” The researchers analyzed data from 2004 to 2008 in which more than half a million adults from ten urban and rural areas across China were surveyed about their health behaviors, including to alcohol consumption.
What: DOI 10.1038/s41591-023-02383-8
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